SWITCH COFFEE TOKYO with Masahiro Onishi
SWITCH COFFEE TOKYO
with Masahiro Onishi
Shortly after graduating university, Masahiro Onishi bought a one-way ticket to Australia in the pursuit of coffee, as many before him. Clearly he found it, evident by his quaint neighbourhood roastery in Meguro. With the sounds of Muddy Waters playing in the background, our coffee chats unfolded.
“It started as a part-time job while I was in school. I already loved coffee, something I got from my parents I think. We always made it at home. At the time, I thought, it’s better to work at a café because… well, a student needs money. I was lucky in 2007 when I started. There were only a few coffee shops in Tokyo that served specialty coffee, and the first café I worked at had really good relations with Vivace in Seattle, a game-changer in the coffee world. It was during this time that I learned the global standard in coffee and found could do coffee better than other stuff. I don’t know why…”
As an early barista, his experience stemmed from a more western-style, artisan approach, but at the time, there wasn’t a lot of this happening in Tokyo, so he went to Australia – a defining moment in coffee for Masa.
As an aspiring musician, there comes a moment in your life where a decision is made whether it’s just a hobby, or you’ll turn the passion into something full time. Sometimes the feeling can change, and Masa used this allegory to explain his journey with coffee.
“I went there [Australia] after graduation because I really wanted to make sure I did want to do it as a job. I was a student, so at the time coffee was kind of a hobby, but I just bought a one-way ticket and went. It was a trip to make up my mind.”
After Australia, he returned to Japan’s beautiful south, where he worked for a well-renowned shop in Fukuoka. Interestingly, this was also where he met now one of Toronto’s very own Momiji Kishi, manager of Hot Black and professional barista. And on that Canadian note, “one of the four brothers of Revolver, John, was here on New Years day, so I passed him some of my coffee to serve at the shop in Vancouver.” Just proving, yet again, how connected this community really is.
“There were lots of reasons for me to start a roastery. It’s nice to work for someone if I can find a good boss or a good taste in coffee, and I don’t care about starting my own business, but I wanted to make something to exactly my taste. To be honest, I wasn’t trying to make big money from this, from coffee. I just want to live.. to keep it going.”
Masa went on to explain that there are 2 ways to introduce new things, “promote it really really well, and some people have done that, or another way is to make it easy and straightforward. Switch – It’s a common word, easy to say, easy to write down” The whole concept here at Switch is to make it simple, and by the way he has all the different roasts laid out on the counter for people to try, accessibility is a huge priority here.
When asked about any big and glorious future plans, Masa responds with a chuckle,
“I’m not a business man, but sometimes I think about having a few shops, maybe hiring about 10 staff… I feel like that would be kind of my social responsibility, something I can do for Japan – hire some baristas and have a few shops.”
At Switch, it’s all about elevating quality and knowledge sharing, and it was super exciting to see how a dream can really come to life.
FOOTNOTES
For more on Switch: http://www.switchcoffeetokyo.com/